For most Christians, tomorrow marks the beginning of Lent, a season of repentance, forgiveness and mercy.
This penitential season leads us to the great feast of Easter, when we remember Christ’s resurrection.
So, why start with ashes? From Old Testament times (Esther 4:3, Isaiah 58:3, Jeremiah 6:26, Daniel 9:3), ashes have been a sign of repentance. Jesus spoke of the use of sackcloth and ashes (Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13).
Since the 4th Century, the Church has ended the year by praying the Te Deum, a great prayer of joy and thanksgiving. It’s only fitting that, on this New Year’s Eve, we take a moment to thank God for all He has done for us this past year, with eager anticipation of what lies ahead in 2012.
I hope you had a great Christmas 🙂 In the Church’s liturgical calendar, the Feast of St. Stephen, the first recognized Christian martyr, comes the day after Christmas.
I don’t know about you, but this has always struck me as a powerful statement. The anticipation in Advent gives way to the joy that comes with Christmas, only to give way to the realization that to be a follower of this newborn King comes with a cost.
If you want to read about St. Stephen, you’ll find his story in the Acts of the Apostles (6:1-8:1). He was known to be a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit (6:5), and his courage under persecution is powerful.
If you were in a Catholic Church today, you heard the story of the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), where the Angel Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus.
Talking about a whopper of a conversation! In the end, however, Mary’s yes set the stage for an event that would radically change the world forever.
Earlier today, I was reminded of the song Gabriel’s Message, sung by Sting for a Christmas album several years ago. Unfortunately, my favorite image of the Annunciation (this one above), painted by Fra Angelico and residing in the Diocesan Museum in Cortona, Italy, wasn’t used in this video clip below.
A good friend of mine is the Campus Minister at a nearby university. For the past several years, he has produced an Advent devotional, with each day’s contribution written by students, faculty and staff.
I was up to see him a few weeks ago, and picked up this year’s edition, and have been using it each day as I get myself spiritually ready for Christmas. The devotional for today, written by a student named A. Boyd, is worth sharing.
Emmanuel is one of the most profound titles of Jesus. The Hebrew word means God is with us. When St. Francis of Assisi set up the first Nativity scene, he wanted to show simple, uneducated people that God chose to come down from heaven and be like us in all things but sin.
Following in the footsteps of St. Francis, people all over the world bring out their own nativity sets each year, but for many, the little scene is just another Christmas decoration, its real meaning obscured amongst all the other decorations.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve been leading some workshops for two groups at my church. It’s been a lot of work, but in the end, I’ve been pleased with the feedback I’ve received.
The first group is made up of volunteer religion teachers. The second group consists of professional educators who teach in Catholic schools. While the content is the same, my approach to each group has been slightly different. The subject is spirituality, and I was grateful to be able to weave in a lot of the thoughts of St. Ignatius and his approach to God and our relationship with Him.
You probably didn’t pick up on this today. Most people wouldn’t, but since I love Italian art, the news story caught my eye. It seems as though an art historian recently found an image of a demon hanging out in a fresco painted by Giotto in the 13th century (middle part of the cloud on the right. Look for the hooked nose).
The image above is from Reuters. The scene is from a cycle of frescos in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.
Earlier today, I gave a presentation on Lectio Divina to a group of schoolteachers. It was well received, so I thought I’d share it with you today. The art of Lectio Divina, Latin for divine reading might be new to you. At one time in the history of the Church, however, it was actually quite common. Then, lives became busy with many other things, and it was left to those in religious life, especially the monastic orders such as the Benedictines, to continue the practice.
Today is the Feast of St. Francis (1181-1226), one of the great Christian saints. I had the chance to visit his hometown of Assisi once on October 4th. Interestingly, the Church honors saints on the day of their death, not their birthday.
By the way, the image to the left is one of my favorite paintings. It was painted by El Greco, and hangs in one of the galleries at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. When I was a student at Johns Hopkins and living in downtown Baltimore, I stood in front of this painting many times. It’s very dramatic in its monochrome shades, and stands out in a gallery filled with brightly colored paintings. Sorry for the deviation. 🙂